Joseph Connell Saltaire Research

Games Development

Saltaire today a home to beautiful architecture, scenery, many businesses and hundreds of people. It was made a world heritage site on the 16th of December 2001 being quoted as an outstanding and well preserved example of a mid 19th century industrial town, the layout of which was to exert a major influence on the development of the garden city movement; however, Saltaire was not always such a town at the start of the 19th century, Bradford was covered in disease with a constantly overflowing population, hungry for money and work. What happened to change all that? One man. The man who made Saltaire into the model town it still is today and the man who wrote himself into history: Sir Titus Salt.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IRsaltP.JPG

Titus salt (born in 1803 Leeds, Yorkshire) grew up working hard with his father and 5 siblings on a 100 acre farm until the age of 18 where he and his father started a business in the wool industry. Reaching 28 Titus began to buy mills of his own and producing his own wool but what really set his business was his discovery that Alpaca wool could be weaved into beautiful cloth; meaning by the time he was 40 he was one of the richest men in Yorkshire 10 years later he used his wealth for the good of his workers creating a mill with a village around it (complete with school church and park) thus Saltaire was born (named from Titus himself and the river). The positioning of Saltaire was well thought out by Titus it was close to the river (links to trade) and the canal it was close to the station (and therefore Bradford etc) but was still very much countryside. He build a self-sustaining village with many of its own shops (butchers, grocers etc) hospital, emergency services etc. Although not all of his ideas where popular (i.e. the Bath and wash house were demolished a few years after being built). He lived to see the last building built and in 1876 died peacefully at home with more than 100,000 people at his funeral and is buried, to this day at the Congregational Church in Saltaire, alongside his wife and several of his children. Although many of Saltaires Streets are named after his children (and royalty / those who helped Titus build Saltaire) his legacy didnt last as long as he would have intended. After his son (Titus Jr) Died, the rest of the Salts moved on and sold up. Saltaire Mill was the biggest in Europe and an achievement for the industry.

http:// www.y orkshir eguide.c o.uk/air edale/i mages/ saltaire /church .jpg

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Joseph Connell

Games Development

So here we have a man who built up an entire community and village through his own ingenuity, wealth and kindness and its these values that continue to make it one of Yorkshires most visited and most loved villages today. Despite the hard times it had to endure after the death of Titus, with the mill being closed in 1983 it was all bought and used by Jonathon Silver. There are of course plenty of outstanding buildings in Saltaire besides Salts Mill - now a regular tourist attraction and full of art and history many of which were designed and build by the combined efforts of David Hockney and Jonathan Silver . The Church (recently repaired/renovated) is a beautiful piece of architecture in its own right. Built in 1859 and put into a stage of renovation in 1999 (costing over 540,000 to complete) it is still used as a church for all intent and purposes (although it is a popular place for people to visit regardless of religion) I myself have witness a wedding within its spectacular walls. In 2001 Saltaire became a World heritage Site. Jonathon did nearly as much for the modern Saltaire as Salt did himself keeping it alive and introducing new companies to the community to keep it alive, employed and flowing such as Pace electronics or Filtronics Comtek.

To tie myself into this work however would be foolish if I didnt mention my biggest link to Saltaire in fact, not just my link Saltaire has many places of education and learning which (combined with the architecture and green surroundings) make an ideal learning environment. The Salts school (originally built to accommodate over 750 children). Built like most of the village (in an Neo-Italianate style) an iconic part of the area where the school building is would be the 4 great lion status outside it and Victoria Hall these beautiful status were said to have been made for London but there was a disagreement and Titus Salt purchased them and brought them to Saltaire.

My own photos of the School building and one of the 4 lions.

22/09/2011

Joseph Connell

Games Development

Since one of my main projects will be recreating a part of Saltaire (i.e. the factory school building) I have such great history, architecture and source material to work with. Making it into a 3-D environment and then adding a twist to it of some kind will be very difficult; but I have some ideas, maybe a medieval time or change it into a college of the distant future. I look forward to learning more about Saltaire and making an environment in my own style.

http://reetgoodleeds.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/saltaire_from_leeds_and_liverpool_canal.jp g

NOTE - TEXT WRITTEN IN ITALICS IS FROM PRIMARY RESEARCH I.E. A GUEST SPEAKER DISCCUSSING TITUS SALT.

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